New user needs help..

[Steffen Grunewald]

On Thu, Aug 12, 2004 at 03:39:19PM +0100, Ben Willcox wrote:
> Hi there,
> 
> Just started to try out FAI, but I'm having a few difficulties.

Don't worry, it usually doesn't take long...

> I've built a new Sarge machine to act as a fai server, and fai is 
> installed and make-nfs-root completed sucessfully.
> I copied the example files over to try the demohost.
> 
> My client machines do not support network booting, so I've created a 
> boot floppy with make-fai-bootfloppy, which I can now boot from.
> (although I had to fix a problem something to do with Grub by making a 
> link, can't remember the details).

same setup here, but no problems. make-fai-bootfloppy -Fv FAI_ACTION=...

> So, this fai server (called fai-server) sits on my LAN which already has 
> a dhcp server so I do not run dhcpd on the fai-server.

Try to. You might succeed. But set yours to non-authoritative!

> As I understand it, fai knows what sort of client it's building by it's 
> hostname, but I can't pass this using my existing dhcp server (well 
> maybe I just don't know how to, it's a Windows box).

Same here. Fortunately the Windows DHCP server is quite loaded so mine
responds first.

> So I pass the following parameters to the bootfloppy:
> 
> ip=192.168.15.21:192.168.15.57:192.168.15.1:255.255.255.0:demohost 
> nfsroot=192.168.15.57:/user/lib/fai/nfsroot FAI_ACTION=install
> 
> (192.168.15.21 is the client, 192.168.15.57 is the fai-server)
> 
> The install fails  - here is my error.log:
> 
> ------------------
> cfengine.log:Currently non existent variable $(HOSTNAME)
> cfengine.log:Currently non existent variable $(HOSTNAME)

Apparently there's no HOSTNAME set. Doesn't the Windows DHCP send one?

> dmesg.log:register_serial(): autoconfig failed
> dmesg.log:hdc: packet command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady 
> SeekComplete Error }
> dmesg.log:hdc: packet command error: error=0x54
> dmesg.log:  Error: Illegal request -- (Sense key=0x05)
> dmesg.log:  The failed "Start/Stop Unit" packet command was:
> dmesg.log:  Error in command packet byte 4 bit 0
> dmesg.log:cdrom: open failed.

Are you trying to set the CDROM (old model?!?) to ultra dma or the like?

> rcS.log:Can't connect daemon on 192.168.15.57. Monitoring disabled.

There's no faimond running.

> rcS.log:NETWORK/S40          FAILED with exit code 1.
> rcS.log:rcp: /tmp/target/boot/vmlinuz-*: No such file or directory
> rcS.log:rcp: /tmp/target/boot/initrd.img-*: No such file or directory

No kernel has been installed.

> Don't know why theres the error about the kernel-image package, as it is
> present in /usr/lib/fai/kernel/kernel-image-2.4.24-fai_1_i386.deb.
> This is the KERNELPACKAGE specified in my fai.conf.

I suppose you're running low on memory.
Can you switch to the second console and type "free" during the install
(after task_mountdisks)? Does your swap space show up? If not: do you
really format it? Or did you forget it?

> Also I had to remove the '--module' option from discover in the 
> 06hwdetect.source script, as it generated a few errors.

Which FAI version are you using??? 2.6 is fine here...


Cheers, 
 Steffen, 2 steps ahead of you...

-- 
Steffen Grunewald * * * Merlin cluster admin (http://pandora.aei.mpg.de)
Albert-Einstein-Institut (MPI Gravitationsphysik, http://www.aei.mpg.de)
       Science Park Golm, Am Mühlenberg 1, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
e-mail: steffen.grunewald(*)aei.mpg.de * +49-331-567-{fon:7233,fax:7298}